18 month old ethan steals the show during one of his dad's recent performances, and christian singer, brown eyed girl. ethan bounced the the beat and the adoring crowd cheered him on and he never dropped his pacifier. a great video there. well, today, we have been asking for your thoughts on governor david duehers proposal to fund training, and jody asked how long until a little one gets a hold of it and accidentally shoots someone or an angry teenager overpowers a teacher. leroy thinks it should be optional. just the fact that a killer would know that some teachers are armed, would deter them. they really are cowards. sharon rights, if pilots can carry one, why not school officials, it's cheaper for training than to hire security. thank you for sharing your thoughts today. that's going to do it for me in d.c.

kelly wright and jamie colby standing by to take it over. tomorrow on fox news sunday. kelly ayotte and blumenthal talk to chris wallace. make it a great day. >> jamie: a fox news alert. serious warnings, we are not kidding. the flu surpluses t-- surpasses the threshold. i hope you're feeling well. >> kelly: i'm kelly wright. we welcome you, latest figures for the seniors for disease control showing 20 children have died so far and 47 states looking at the rap right there are reporting widespread influenza outbreaks. only california, mississippi and hawaii have been spared so far, but those numbers may lag a couple of weeks behind. >> jamie: yeah, and the numbers are pretty startling. we've recently learned now 27 people dead in minnesota, 22 in pennsylvania, 18 in

massachusetts, 8 in oklahoma, 6 in illinois. anna kooiman in the new york city news room with the latest. >> reporter: new york state governor andrew cuomo declaring a state wide emergency, and encouraged everyone to get the flu vaccine. officials say supplies are running low in some places, but the vaccine is still available. nearly 130 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed and 112 million have been used. since the swine flu epidemic in 2009 vaccination rates have increased here in the united states, but more than half of americans have yet to get the vaccine this year. physicians say it's not too late to get your shots. >> the best way to prevent the flu right now is to get the flu shot. and a lot of people have some hesitation getting the flu shot. the flu shots are the best way to prevent the flu from occurring.

>> reporter: the epidemic is two fold, a stronger than normal strain and the dreaded flu season started one month early in december. and the c.d.c., centers for decemb disease control. estimates they kill many over year. employers are doing whenever they can, handing the out masks and encouraging employees to wear them. boston has been hit particularly hard and the death toll from the flu hit six. state you believe public health officials say the early arrival and symptoms have been causing patience to flood emergency rooms and a rush on vaccines. the advice from physicians, wash your hands, avoid touching your face. keep your germs to yourself. don't go to work and don't let your kids go to school. >> jamie: wash your computer and your stuff. >> it's your friend. >> jamie: love it, thank you so much. and there are new concerns that we may simply run out of the flu vaccine.

if you needed extra incentive. the largest producer of the vaccine in the u.s. says it's sold out in four of six different dosages it makes mostly due to high demand and they're report ago shortage of tamiflu, given to children, to slow or stop the symptoms once you get he the flu and taken in the first days when you know you have flu symptoms and manufacturers have warned of an imminent delay in shipment. >> and the cost of this flu season is shocking, and continues to rise in the u.s. alone, the annual direct cost is estimated at 10.4 billion dollars. that includes hospitalization, doctors visits and medications as well and additionally up to 111 million work days are lost because of the the flu. an estimated 7 billion dollars a year, in just six da-- sick days and lost productivity. >> jamie: what should you do

if you get sick, many people are wrestling when to tough it out at home or go to the emergency room. fox medical a-teamer, dr. somati will have that, and in the meantime keep your fluids going, we will have it later in the hour. >> kelly: good advice. new details on the obama administration's effort to overhaul the nation's gun laws, after a week of meetings with some the major players in this debate, including the n.r.a., vice-president joe biden is now preparing a list of recommendations, aimed at curbing gun violence, but critics, fear they could trample our second amendment and peter doocy with more. peter, this is shaping up to be quite a bit debate. >> reporter: it is, kelly and the vice-president's meeting with lawmakers and sportsmen and safety advocates have been behind closed doors, but he has spoken very briefly to the media off the top of each one and he gave us a quick update yesterday about his pass--

progress, but used a metaphor to demonstrate and explain whatever they come up with, it's not going to stop gun violence overnight. >> there's no silver bull there's no, as one of my friends said, no seat belt that you can put on to assure that you will not be in this circumstance again. >> reporter: the national rifle association thinks the administration's approach to curbing gun violence is all wrong. in a statement after their meeting with the vice-president this week, the n.r.a. made clear, they think the biden-led passport is seeking to attack the second amendment and they think cultural changes will impact safety more than gun control ever will. >> gun control's been a failed experiment. joe biden pushed a gun ban through in 1994 and bill clinton's justice department said it had no impact on crime. let's look at mental health. let's look at a violent culture. let's look at things that can address the underlying problem and then we can start making a

difference in our kid's lives. >> gun shops across the country are reporting increased sales to americans concerned that after the federal government takes action to reduce violence, guns are going to be harder to purchase, but the vice-president made clear this week, he thinks a great deal can be done without impinging on the rights guaranteed by the second amendment, kelly. >> peter doocy from our washington news room, thank you, peter. >> well, there are now questions today, following another poor jobs report that we received, and why we're not hearing more about the administration's second term agenda on our unemployment crisis. according to the labor department, unemployment claims rose by 4,000 has week and the highest number in five weeks. there are now some 12 million americans or more unemployed, and more than 22 million folks are either unemployed or underemployed in lower paying jobs and the average unemployed person is out of work forks, are you ready for

this? nearly 40 weeks. and there's a good chance that a person gets a pink slip now would not see another real paycheck until october, 2013. the labor participation rate remains unchanged. 53.6% under 64% for the entire year of 2012 and that's the longest stretch since the keep deep reception of the early 1980's. angela mcglowan, analyst, and julie, a former political advisor to senator lautenberg of new jersey join me now. >> great to see you. >> jamie: julie, i want to ask you, the president has been pretty upfront, and you're a democrat, talking about gun control and immigration, and the debt ceiling, which he may and is getting support from other democrats to act on unilaterally. but not a lot of mention in these couple of weeks we've just been through about jobs and folks are, i'm sure you would agree, worried about their futures. what is his jobs plan specifically? >> well, absolutely. look, there's a couple of

issues here, number one, he did have a very aggressive jobs plan that the republican senate and house actually killed last year, they wouldn't take it up, wouldn't, filibustered it. and so you can only do something with a partner with which to do it. and the larger problem, a partisan issue, the problem of moving crisis to crisis. first the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, the sequester coming up and no long-term planning on issues that really affect the american public. >> jamie: julie, that's not my question. with all due respect. i understand that you feel the republicans are standing in the way of what the president wants on some things, but what specifically is his jobs plan? you must know. >> of course, i can tell you the jobs plan he introduced last year and happy to introduce it tomorrow if the republicans said they'd vote on. infrastructure investment and in our states, hire more firemen police and teachers, give tax breaks to companies in order to encourage them to

hiring. and tax breaks to americans, to american companies to bring jobs. >> jamie: you're not-- julie, what you're not mentioning is-- >> angela, some of those things sound like they might be helpful. >> yeah, some of those things could be helpful, but the president did have a jobs plan that before the senate and some democrats voted it down. the bottom line, is this, julie, the president has a bully pulpit and doesn't want to talk about his failures and not put forth a jobs plan that democrats and republicans can both support. and you are right, we are going from crisis to crisis. here in washington d.c., but we've known about the fiscal cliff. we've known about the debt ceiling, we've known about all of these things, so the reason why, jamie, the president's putting more emphasis on immigration and putting more emphasis on other things and gun control, not saying that that's not important, he can't stand on his policies of the past. >> jamie: but he did campaign on those things and i know he wants to fulfill those promises, but angela, is he not in touch with the american

public sitting home right now in a chair saying when am i going to go back to work? >> he's out of touch with the american public, but it's never been about the american public, it's been about the liber liberal agenda, president obama's national agenda and controlling the dialog. with the mainstream media. and i believe that americans will speak up and as we have wall street being protested against, i think this administration will be protested against when people cannot find jobs. >> jamie: julie. i know you would disagree and say that the administration is addressing these issues and wants to push harder on a jobs agenda, but if the president isn't getting the message out and people aren't all going back to work because the numbers are on the rise as i read, what would be your message to people out there who are really struggling this late in the game? we're now completing a fourth year of the administration? >> it is an absolutely horrific situation. i empathize with people out there, but again, we have a branch of government that's

not cooperating with another branch of government and when you filibuster, you asked what the president's specifically job proposal gave it to you and yet, the republicans wouldn't put it forward and allow it to go up for a vote and filibustered it, when you have republicans especially saying we're not going to do anything the president wants no matter what it is, no matter if it helps people or not and economists like mark zandi from moody's, a former john mccain advisor and create jobs and a republican like mark zandi was shut down. >> jamie: does that make sense? julie, take a step back, let's be bipartisan. does that make sense, why would republicans stand in the way. >> thank you. >> jamie: why would anybody stand in the the way of putting the american public back to work, puts more money back in the economy. >> why would the republicans threaten to default our government from the debt obligations, why would the republicans do that. >> because, it's because-- >> their right wing and they don't want the president-- listen, you had mitch mcconnell the senate leader essentially saying that his

role was to make sure that president obama was a one-term president. >> and now-- >> julie, washington d.c. has a spending problem. we just cannot continue to give washington d.c. a blank check and the bottom line is this: when nancy pelosi was in control, when democrats were in control of the house and senate, the president got all of his policies through. and it's like deja vu, groundhog's date all over again and we are still looking for jocks. >> the rate down quite a bit. >> jamie: let me ask both of you, the 12 million people plus out of work right now or underemployed, don't their vote count, doesn't their vote count? even though we've elected president obama by a majority, the question, aren't jobs a priority? julie, how do you tell those people that their lives matter, they're out of work. >> i think their lives do matter and i think they did vote and they voted to send a

clear message that what the president's agenda was their presence versus the republicans, i wish the republicans would listen to that. >> i don't think that the american people's agenda is to stay unemployed, julie. i don't think the american people's agenda is to live off of the government dole. i think the american people want to be able to live their own dream and not have the big brother government take care of them, and not have the nanny state take care of them. and the bottom line, congress and the the white house, they do need to work together, but the white house needs to compromise as well. it's just not obama's way or no way at all and that's how it's been. >> jamie: i'm only saying yes he to my producer, they said the bottom line, that has to be the last word. ladies, thank you. >> thank you, jamie. >> jamie: you know, we're all trying to get people back to work. thank you. kelly. >> kelly: it's supposed to be the future of commercial air travel, but federal regulators are raising serious new

questions now about boeing 787 dreamliner, calling for a comprehensive review on the design, manufacture and assembly of the plane after a series of frightening incidents occurring. dominic di-natale is joining us with more details about this, what's up with this. >> reporter: hey, there, kelly, an alarming series of events one after another. a fire in a battery of an auxiliary power unit on the japanese airlines 787 at boston logan airline. fortunately, nobody on board. and a fuel leak the same aircraft and the same airline. and the question, how much is this going to affect the manufacture of boeing? boeing is one of our biggest exporters, massive company. 170,000 people worldwide and 7,000 on the west coast alone and i think it's telling how the transport secretary ray lahood said he had absolutely he no reservations boarding one of these aircraft, it's so safe because the government is

scared about the economic impact this could have. it's rare that a government endorses a brand let alone a product. the magnitude of the impact on boeing is the question of the day. stuck 2 1/2% on friday and boeing, i'm sorry, the f.a.a. investigation we've got to see, really will be far reaching much more than people realize and focus on the electronic distribution and the mechanic systems and how they interact and it will go much further than that. one analyst was saying, boeing is more exposed than normal, because something else could come up as a result of it. and that could affect the company negatively. but the second analyst said maybe it could help lift the tarnished reputation that boeing has. it's rough around these parts for year and passengers also very concern, really, about getting on board the plane, because it's been a new plane and a lot of passengers and the range of the plane could actually take passengers, and maybe really given it the commercial appeal that boeing hopes it would have. all in all.

both passengers and the company and of course the economy, jobs, could be affected in here, it's a massive issue, kelly, back to you. >> that's quite a bit. dominic di-natale. thank you. >> jamie: stay away from the keyboard. the new fraud alert before you turn on your computer. >> kelly: and lance armstrong giving a bombshell interview, could he finally be coming clean about all of those doping allegations? >> also new details behind the death of a chicago lottery winner, why we may soon found out whether he was murdered for his millions. >> they're going to find more details, but i can't share anything at this time because it's under investigation, and the truth will come out and you all will know. aving. mommy's having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings

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>> time now for a quick check of your headlines, at least 44 people are dead and two are missing, following a landslide in southwest china. no reports of what triggered the slide, but china is dealing with an unusually cold winter. as the department of homeland security is warning users to temporarily disable java. there's a concern that hackers are exploiting a flaw in the software, making you vulnerable to criminal

activity and the palms casino in las vegas facing a 1 million dollar fine after a police sting. police say nightclub employees were providing undercover cops with prostitutes and drugs. a palms spokesman says the company is concerned and implementings new policies. >> well, there is some new developments in the mysterious death of an illinois later winner. a judge granting permission to exhume his body. he was poisoned with a lethal amount of cyanide, after winning a million dollars on a scratch off ticket in june, the next month he was dead craig wohl with our fox affiliate. wfld has the story. >> i got a call at four o'clock in the morning, screaming on the phone, i couldn't understand what was going on. >> urooj khan's sister says she does not who who called

her that night, but came from her brother's phone. and the family is relieved the judge has given permission to exhume his body so the medical examiner can complete an autopsy how he ingested the cyanide that killed him. >> we're glad we'll know what happened. >> he was a million dollar lottery winner back in june and accepted a ceremonial check with his wife and daughter from a previous marriage standing by his side. but on july 20th, the day his $425,000 lump sum check mailed died in his home from later determined to be cyanide poisoning. 17-year-old jasmine has moved out of the family house and her aunt has been appointed guardian. and the family says that his wife, ansari, prepared him the last meal, a curry beef dish, but no one else ate the food. hours later, khan died, but experts say cyanide usually kills people quickly raising

questions about the food as the source. the autopsy on khan's body is expected to be completed the end of next week and that will allow the medical examiner to determine if khan ingested the poison by food, drink or breathed it. ansari denied having anything to do with his death. she loved and she supports the exhumation, and she wants her brother to rest in piece. >> we have to have justice served and that's what it takes to bring justice for peace, that's what needs to be done. >> do you think they will find the truth? >> i'm sure. at least i hope they do. >> an interesting story from craig wohl from our affiliate, wfld. >> kelly: a u.s. launching air strikes in an al-qaeda hot spot and asking for uls military support.

breaking details ahead. >> jamie: major announcements concerning our troops in afghanistan, how their mission is about to take a very dramatic turn. >> starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission. training, advising, assisting, afghan forces, it will be a historic moment. plus presents the cold truth. i have the flu... i took theraflu, but i still have this cough. [ male announcer ] truth is theraflu doesn't treat your cough. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have a cough suppressant. great. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus severe cold and flu fights your worst flu symptoms, plus that cough with a fast acting cough suppressant. [ sighs ] thanks!... [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook.

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>> welcome back, everybody. there's word now that president obama is speeding up the transition in afghanistan, announcing there will be less u.s. troops there starting this spring. after a high stakes meeting he had with afghan president hamid karzai at the white house, the two outlining steps to wind down u.s. military presence after the american mission formally ends in afghanistan in 2014. here is president obama. >> afghan forces will take the

lead for security across the entire country. by the end of next year, 2014, the transition will be complete. afghans will have full responsibility for their security and this war will come to a responsible end. >> jamie: and more live from washington, hi, molly. >> reporter: hi, jamie, part of that responsible end according to some republicans is making sure that the u.s. prevents al-qaeda from moving back into afghanistan. >> i think all americans want our troops home, but the important part what you've got to remember is to keep our troops still there safe. when you reduce your numbers to a level like 10,000 or less you've got to make sure your mission is complete, it's coordinated with the afghan authorities and we don't leave a vacuum there, that can be filled by terrorists. >> president obama seen hamid karzai he'll explain to the

american people in coming months, what the footprint will look like in afghanistan in 2014. he's concentrating on bringing home most american troops and this spring, shifting those that remain to a training and advising role. here at home, he says america needs to focus on rebuilding our own nation. >> we have to grow our economy and shrink our deficits. great new jobs to boost family incomes and we have to fix our infrastructure and immigration system. we have to protect our planet from the destructive effects of climate change and protect our children from the horrors of gun violence. >> as for afghanistan, president obama voiced his support for reconciliation efforts between the afghan government and taliban insurgents. part of that includes a taliban political office in the country of qatar to help facilitate negotiations with afghan leaders. jamie. >> jamie: thanks so much, molly. we're also following for you another al-qaeda hot spot,

it's in west africa. french forces launching air strikes overnight on three separate targets in mally, a former french colony, driving rebels out of a key city and destroying a command center. according to the wall street journal, paris is asking support. after an appeal from help from mali's president and involved hundreds of french troops. officials say one french helicopter was downed and the pilot later died of his wounds. we're also getting new reports that france has just raised its terror threat level as a result of the current military action. and it's important to understand, this is one of the most dangerous off-shoots of al-qaeda in the world bar none. they've carved out their territory in the lawless desert region in the northern part of that country in the past nine months. we will have much more to come on this developing story, so stay tuned. kelly. >> kelly: well, growing concerns about the direction of u.s. foreign policy in the

wake of former republican senator chuck hagel's nomination as the next secretary of defense. mr. hagel currently serve as the co-chair of president obama's intelligence advisory board and many critics are worried saying that a number of hagel's past comments, including iran, cuba and israel have been completely at odds with u.s. interests. the congresswoman, the chairperson of the house foreign affairs committee and joins us now. >> thank you. >> kelly: i looked at a concerns you and your colleagues have about the nomination of former republican senator chuck hagel to be the new secretary of defense. for example, you have concerns, i understand about the statements he's made in the past on iran, israel, cuba and how he reportedly would like to even cut military spending and perhaps hallow out the fort. and what can this nominee do to ease your concerns as well as those of your republican colleagues? >> well, i think that people should be judged by their past

actions and when i was the chair of affairs and now middle east and subcommittee chair i've been working on the issue of iran sanctions many a year and found chuck hagel to be a person who cannot be relied upon for a positive vote in favor of sanctions. now, there are only so many tools in our diplomatic toolbox to use defenagainst rog nations and sanctions is one of the effective tools. what's chuck hagel'sir iran's sanctions? iran's revolutionary guard has a terrorist organization, 72 senators co-sponsored a bill to designate them as son, including then senators obama and biden and senator kerry. and chuck hagel refused to co-sponsor that bill and actually voted against it on the senate. and also, when he was a member of the banking committee, there was another bill to

penalize foreign companies that continue to do business with iran's energy sector, which is key to their iran building a nuclear weapon. what is chuck hagel's vote in the banking committee? only two senators voted against the bill to penalize these foreign companies. chuck hagel's was one of those votes. and when it came to the bigger issue of iran sanctions on the senate floor, chuck hagel, again, one of only two senators of the entire u.s. senate to vote against iran sanctions, with so many dictators-- >> i'm sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt you, but if i may, let's talk about the point of israel, what has been your concern with senator hagel on that issue. >> well, there was a letter circulated in the united states senate overwhelmingly, a high number of senators signed the letter, expressing something as simple as solidarity with the democratic jewish state of israel, our

salad ally. chuck hagel refused to sign a letter expressing solidarity with israel and what we have seen is that he favors engagement with syria's al-assad, with il when he was alive and also, with all of the dictators who seek to harm u.s. interests and our allies. he wants further engagement with them. he doesn't think that we should penalize those dictators and that harms u.s. national security interests. >> kelly: i understand, but if i may-- if i understand, let me point out something that mr. hagel said himself in a recent interview with the "lincoln journal star" which of course is a newspaper in his home state of nebraska. mr. hagel wanted to describe his views as quote, unequivocal, total support for israel and said the distortions about my record, he said, have been astounding. how do you respond to that? does that give you some

assurance? because he went on to say that hanging out there in no man's land and follows distortions. what's your response to that? >> that's really such a victimhood kind of response. this man is quite able to respond to this criticism. he can say why he didn't sign a letter expressing solidarity with israel, motherhood and apple pie. why he voted against iran sanctions? he's got at best, to be generous, a mixed bag when it comes to north korea and he's going to defends himself in the senate and the senators will judge him on his deeds and perhaps on his words today, but what has been his record thus far, i find it troubling and out of all the people in the united states of america that this could be the best choice to be secretary of defense? i'm not saying that this gentleman doesn't deserve a fair hearing, of course he does, but i don't think he's the best candidate to lead our

forces. >> kelly: and let me ask you a question, what qualities much philosophy are you and your quality, g.o.p. senate and the house, looking for in the next secretary of defense. do you think that chuck hagel meets your criteria, obviously at the present time you do not. >> i believe that the president has every right to nominate the people he believes can carry out his plans, but i worry about the vision that president obama has for our department of defense if he thinks that chuck hagel is the best leader for our armed forces. i think that there are more qualified individuals, folks who really know the difference between dictators and folks who are on our side. israel is our ally. i think that chuck hagel has a difficult time understanding that israel is our ally and understanding that iran wants to destroy israel and wants to destroy the united states. i think a clear vision of our adversaries and our allies is essential for a nominee for

the department of defense. i don't think chuck hagel has that vision. but let's see, it's up to our senators and i hope that they judge him not on whether he's a great guy and get along with him in the u.s. senate, but whether he's the best man to be the secretary of defense. i don't believe he is. >> kelly: congresswoman, thank you for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you. >> kelly: to share your perspective on chuck hagel nominated for secretary of defense. good day to you. >> thank you, good day. >> jamie: it's only the beginning of year, but people are already thinking about tax season because the new year's bringing a raft of new changes. it's complicated stuff, but not here. we are going to tell you what the new changes are and what you need to prepare. >> kelly: we'll simplify for you. and with the flu reaching epidemic levels across our country, there's a lot you need to know to stay safe. fox a-team medical member david somati will be here to check on that.

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>> and welcome back, shocking new developments now concerning disgraced former cycling champion lance armstrong. sources say armstrong is preparing to make a limited confession to doping after years of denial. armstrong will sit down for an interthe view next week with oprah winfrey at his home in austin, texas. armstrong has not spoken publicly about the u.s. anti-doping agency report last year, casting him as the leader of a sophisticated doping program. the report eventually led to armstrong being stripped of his seven tour de france titles and a lifetime ban from the sport. >> jamie: meanwhile, this new year has brought a slew of new tax laws, when congress reached that deal on the fiscal cliff. the last minute decisions put the irs behind in their work, and the agency, as it's updating its software is behind. even if you can't file income

tax returns electronically yet, now is the time to get things ready or your refund could be late. and hi, patricia, great to see you. >> great to be back. >> how complicated is it this year? well, for 2012, if we're talking about filing for 2012, it's not that bad because most of what they did with the fiscal cliff is really for 2013. but i think it's all the companies trying to catch up and software trying to catch up because nobody knew what they were going to do. >> jamie: we're going to do our best to file 2012 with what we know. >> right. >> jamie: in 2013 what can we do to prepare ourselves when the dreaded time comes for next year. >> right. >> jamie: what we've spent and earned this year, what do we do. >> there are so many changes in the tax law. first of all, for people making more than $400,000 if your a single or 450 married filing jointly, new tax rates, 39.6%, you want to make sure that you're withholding

enough, over and above that, there's a change in the capital gains rate from 15% to 20% for the same people, but that is on top of the obamacare surcharge of 3.8%. withholding is going to be critical this year and you're going to have to make a lot of adjustments depending how you expect the year to play out. >> jamie: that's interesting, maybe you can learn something from last year, how much tax you owed based on your coincome. and when you get that w-4, maybe worth filing a new one, how much exemptions can you put down? >> it depends how much you actually owe the government or whether -- you can't, in the old days, people use today just put extraordinary numbers of exemptions down so they would get the money and give it to the irs late and the irs will penalize you for it for doing that. you're really supposed to have your exemptions very much in line with what you're actually able to take. >> under the new regulations, regarding, let's say like tuition credit, child care

credits. what's changed and what receipts would be really important to hold on to in 2013? >> well, the -- you can take some taxpayers will be able to take a deduction for tuition, teachers will still be able to take a $250 deduction for putting money out of their own pocket to pay for school supplies and the likes. so keeping records is really important, charity you need to keep records, need to keep records as well. so, i think record keeping, we have a big box that we just throw everything in, all year long, because you never know because you have to hit certain thresholds. i want to throw out one really important thing, if there's a gift act, they reinstated gift act for people making what they consider, but the tloesh hold. >> jamie: what's a giveback. >> a give back, you don't get the full value of exemptions and full value of your deduction, you might have $20,000 deductions, but maybe when they go through the give back rule you'll only get a

$10,000 deduction, keeping records, but also paying attention to where you stand is incredibly important this year. and accountants are going to be busy. >> jamie: sorry, and getting advice like this before the end of the year is a good idea. >> absolutely. >> jamie: pat, come back and talk more about it as we take it apart and figure it out. >> thank you. >> jamie: pat powell, everyone. >> kelly: when we return, new details on a particularly nasty strain of the flu spreading across the country and might of you watching might have it and why there are concerns about a vaccine shortage and what you need to know if you still haven't gotten your shot.

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>> welcome back to our top story of the day. the flu reaching epidemic levels across the entire country right now. the latest figures from the centers for disease control showing 47 states are reporting widespread flew activity. dr. david somati is the a-team, and chief of robotics, mount sinai hospital. and it's an important topic. what can people do to prevent having the flu. >> kelly, the news is worse and worse and the key word is epidemic as you mentioned. we tried to avoid it, but the numbers on the rise. there's a state of emergency in places like boston and new york, so you really need to protect yourself and there are

ways to really prevent flu and a lot of people called in and asked us exactly. and one of the first things to do get vaccinated. if you don't have the vaccine, now is the time. we're not at the peak and there's enough time to do this. the second thing, we want to make sure that you wash your hands on a regular basis. because of the cough and droplets, washing your hands regularly, clean up the viruses that might get into your system and the certain message that's important, cover your mouth. now, there's news that came out of mount sinai and i'm sure a lot of other hospitals, it's not mandatory for health care and doctors to get the vaccine, they encourage that. if you're not getting it you need to wear a mask and cover your mouth is exactly important. what happened with sars, in hong kong and don't rub your eyes, how you're going to get the virus in your system. obviously, talk to your doctor and if the symptoms are early on, you may need to get tamiflu and please, if you're sick, stay home. your boss, everyone is going

to understand because you're going to spread the virus to everybody else, if you're really sick stay home. >> kelly: if you go to work, that makes it worse. how do you know if you have the flu or the common cold. >> excellent question. the symptoms are similar. when it comes to flu symptoms, everything is more pronounced, fever, body ache, short of breath, can't breathe. you have severe cough. when it comes to common cold, you have a lot of congestion, rainy nose and may have fever, but it's not as bad. but the virus, the flu itself, really gets you very sick and makes the fevers up to 103, 104 and it takes over your system. now, when we talk about elderly, that's when it can go to become into pneumonia and you want to make sure you break this and keep well hydrated and talk to your doctor if it's not going to improve. now, when should you go to the hospital? a lot of these hospitals right now are having problems because these people are rushing there and it's not good because you can contaminate the patients there

or get something new in the emergency room. unless you have difficulty breathing, that's the first sign. if you're short of breath and you can't breathe well or you have high fever, if your fever is over 101 and you've done everything you can to break it, putting the cold comfort, taking tylenol and talking to your doctor, if you cannot break the fever, that's when you really want to go in. before going to the emergency room, call your doctor and find out what you need to do. >> jamie: how are we doing in terms of the ability to get the flu vaccine? there have been some reports of shortages and also of tamiflu? >> right now we don't have a major shortage. we have 135 million that we produced this year in anticipation, and only about 30% of the country are really getting vaccinated. and close to 128 million vaccines have been given, which is fairly good. so we're not going to make new vaccines because they're working on the next year. >> so, there is still, about 7 to 10 million left. so if you're not vaccinated,

this is a time, the season for flu is going to continue to mid march or later, and you know, we still don't know how good in vaccine is and how great of the matched. we'll find out in april. >> if you get the vaccine and do everything you said and call your doctor only when it's necessary and you hear that this is a deadly flu already, people have died. what is it that they die from, dehydration? what do you have to be the most careful about? pneumonia. well, jamie, what hans the virus kind of like takes over your immune system and becomes a multi-system failure, it starts with the infection in your lungs and it spread to your blood and bring you down. obviously at the beginning of it, keeping well hydrated and taking a lot of fluid, bringing your fever down, if you have done all of that and if you have this in the first 24 hours, taking tamiflu seems to be shortening the period of your symptoms, if none of this works, please call your doctor

before you go to the emergency room, obviously, it depends on whether you're asthmatic, whether you have other issues, cardiac disease and your doctor can advise you to make sure that you're safe, but this is a serious problem. >> jamie: can we give folks an update on sunday house call. >> more updates. >> jamie: it's developing by the hour. doctor, thank you so much. all right that's going to do it for us, i'm jamie colby, thank you for being with us. join us for sunday house call tomorrow if you can, kelly. >> kelly: and good of you to join us and of course the doctor giving us great advice and get it again tomorrow morning and make sure to take care of yourselves. i'm kelly wright and the journal editorial report is coming up next. >> jamie: take care, everybody. you can do that all you want, i don't like v8 juice. [ male announcer ] how about v8 v-fusion. a full serving of vegetables, a full serving of fruit. but what you taste is the fruit. so even you... could've had a v8.

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